Life possible on extrasolar moons

New research shows that exomoons, or those orbiting planets outside the solar system, might be as good candidates to support life as exoplanets.René Heller

In their search for habitable worlds, astronomers have started to consider exomoons, or those likely orbiting planets outside the solar system. In a new study, a pair of researchers has found that exomoons are just as likely to support life as exoplanets.

“Exomoons are more complicated than exoplanets, they have more issues — but they also have more opportunities than planets to be habitable,” said Barnes. “There is a habitable zone for exomoons, it’s just a little different than the habitable zone for exoplanets.”

About 850 extrasolar planets — planets outside the solar system — are known, and most of them are sterile gas giants, similar to Jupiter. Only a few have a solid surface and orbit their host stars in the habitable zone, the circumstellar belt at the right distance to potentially allow liquid surface water and a benign environment.

Heller and Barnes tackled the theoretical question whether such planets could host habitable moons. No such exomoons have yet been discovered but there’s no reason to assume they don’t exist.

The climatic conditions expected on extrasolar moons will likely differ from those on extrasolar planets because moons are typically tidally locked to their planet.Thus, similar to the Earth’s moon, one hemisphere permanently faces the planet. Beyond that, moons have two sources of light — that from the star and from the planet they orbit — and are subject to eclipses that could significantly alter their climates, reducing stellar illumination.

Heller and Barnes also identified tidal heating as a criterion for exomoon habitability. This additional energy source is triggered by a moon’s distance to its host planet; the closer the moon, the stronger tidal heating. Moons that orbit their planet too closely will undergo strong tidal heating and thus a catastrophic runaway greenhouse effect that would boil away surface water and leave them forever uninhabitable.

The scientists also devised a theoretical model to estimate the minimum distance a moon could be from its host planet and still allow habitability, which they call the “habitable edge.” This concept will allow future astronomers to evaluate the habitability of extrasolar moons.

The precision of NASA’s Kepler space telescope now makes the detection of a Mars- to Earth-sized extrasolar moon possible, perhaps imminent. Launched in 2009, the telescope enabled scientists to reveal thousands of new extrasolar planet candidates. Since 2012 the first dedicated “Hunt for Exomoons with Kepler” is under way.